


As Long As You’re With Me

by Tookbaggins



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Comfort, F/M, Fluff, New Dream, One Shot, Post Movie, Post Series, Rapunzel/Eugene - Freeform, a little sad, you don’t need to have seen the series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-14 15:00:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29793672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tookbaggins/pseuds/Tookbaggins
Summary: Some things would take a lifetime for Rapunzel to adjust to. As she watched Eugene’s still face in the moonlight, the biggest one finally sank in.A one shot wherein Rapunzel struggles with a fact of life she can no longer protect anyone from.
Relationships: Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel
Comments: 7
Kudos: 25





	As Long As You’re With Me

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve had this in my docs for a long time, just waiting to be finished up. It’s coincidence that I’m getting it posted on the anniversary of Plus Est En Vous! 
> 
> This is something I’ve thought a lot about, Rapunzel and how she would feel/deal with things as she experienced them for the first time. I hope you guys enjoy it.

Rapunzel was awake. Wide awake. She stared at the ceiling. Her eyes traced slowly along the painted patterns and leaves that she herself had brushed there what seemed to be a long time ago. How long had it been? Fifteen years? It felt like a long time but it also felt like yesterday that she had surveyed her new home and been overwhelmed with how much space and potential it had. It felt more familiar now, both with time and paint. She wished more things could be that constant. 

She turned slowly, unwilling to disturb Eugene as he slept deeply beside her. He was curled close to her, his cheek pillowed upon his hands in a pose that reminded her fondly of the first night they’d spent together just after meeting. She hadn’t known then that people had cute quirks like a position they always shifted to in sleep. She smiled. He looked peaceful. 

The moonlight glinted off his hair. 

It didn’t used to do that. Of course she noticed, how could she not? The lightening of his hair as strands of silver found a place among the brown was startling. They stood out. She raised a hand to her own hair, rubbing a lock of it between her fingers. She didn’t seem to have any yet, although she’d searched thoroughly over the last few days with a strange anxiousness in the pit of her stomach. Why did she escape it when Eugene hadn’t? There was a faint line near the corner of one of his eyes. Had that always been there?

Rapunzel slid a little closer to him, her movements still slow and careful. That was definitely a line. And another. And another. Her eyes burned. Her mom had these lines. Her father had them other places. They’d always looked like that, hadn’t they? It was strange to see the actual change of someone’s face, especially someone as important as her husband. 

She’d only really seen it on one other. Gothel’s changes had never been permanent. Eugene’s… she reached out, her finger hovering just above them. Her nerve failed and she brought her hand to her chest, squeezing it right. She wanted to think it was shadow, that the moonlight drifting through the balcony door was playing tricks on her eyes. It isn’t there, she told herself. It  _ isn’t there.  _ But she knew better. Her eyes were sharp, and it wasn’t just in darkness that she’d seen them. 

Eugene murmured in his sleep, words too soft and formless for her to hear. Her heart felt like it was breaking. He was her everything, had been with her through the only changes she’d ever known. She didn’t want  _ him  _ to change, too. 

Rapunzel moved a little closer. When Eugene slept on she inched forward little by little, just enough that she could feel their foreheads touch through the brush of her hair. If her hair still held the sun… if she still held that power… she could help him the way she’d always helped Mother. 

Gothel, she reminded herself. The way she had  _ served _ Gothel. Her brain knew the distinction but she sometimes slipped and thought of the past as it had been told to her, not how it actually was. The years had made it easy to avoid thinking about it at all but lately it had been at the edge of her thoughts. Her hair, more than any other element of it. 

Eugene’s face was too close to focus on so she closed her eyes, trying to focus on the sound of his breath and the faint stir of wind from the balcony door. It wouldn’t work. She knew it wouldn’t. The magic was gone. 

Still, a part of her dared to hope. 

There was enough contact between them. Rapunzel took a slow breath and tried to calm herself, the familiar words drifting from her lips in the smallest of voices. It was cautious, faint. Even as she sang and there was no glow of sunlight against her closed lids, her voice began to break against the words. Tears welled in her eyes and her voice thickened with them, stuttering to a stop in the middle of the final line. The incantation didn’t work. She should’ve known it wouldn’t. Eugene would grow old and die and there was nothing she could to do keep from losing him. She pulled away from him and rolled over, curling into herself. Her pillow caught in her hands and she pressed it to her face, letting it muffle her tears. There was nothing she could do.

Beside her, Eugene shifted and she pressed her face harder into her pillow. She didn’t want him to see her like this, to know that she’d been worrying over him. He’d brush it off and say he was a fine wine or something, pretending it didn’t bother him either. She knew it did and she knew he’d try his hardest to be strong for the both of them. Rapunzel didn’t want to put that kind of burden on him. 

“What’s wrong?” There was no trace of sleepiness in his voice. His years on the street had made him a light sleeper out of necessity and he’d never shaken the trait. Rapunzel hadn’t been thinking about it. She should’ve known she couldn’t keep from waking him. “Rapunzel?”

She curled in on herself even more. He rarely used her name, and she knew he did it now because he felt something was wrong. His hand fell to her arm, always gentle and comforting. It didn’t soothe her this time as he turned her toward him. “Eugene…”

“What is it? Are you okay?” He was over her, pushed up onto his arm so he could scan her quickly. When he saw nothing to cause the alarm his face relaxed slightly and he sank down next to her and pulled her into his arms. “Okay, you’re really gonna need to fill me in, babe.”

“I was just...and you…” Rapunzel gasped softly against her tears, trying her best to get the words out. She felt Eugene’s fingers threading through her hair and brushing it away from her neck, the touches offering to ground her. He waited patiently for her to gather herself, ignoring the wet spot she was making against his shirt. Eventually exhaustion began to overtake her and her cries softened to small hiccups. 

“Okay. Do you want to talk now?” Eugene asked, his chin tucked against the top of her head. For a long moment Rapunzel was quiet. 

“We’re getting old.”

“Oh. Well, that happens. Normally, anyway. Although I never took you for being vain, Sunshine.” He pulled back as Rapunzel made an aggravated noise.

“No! I mean… I mean,  _ you’re  _ getting old. I don’t care if I do, but Eugene…” Frustration took over her and she sat up away from him. “Your...your hair! Eventually you’ll… I can’t  _ do _ anything!” She threw her hands up and the tears started again, as strong as if she hadn’t cried in years. Eugene sat up with her, his face tightening as his attempt at levity had obviously failed. He smiled gently and caught her hands in his, stilling her. 

“And you don’t need to.”

“But Eugene!”

“So I’m more of a silver fox than a wolfish rogue these days. It’s okay.” She leaned into him. His words didn’t alleviate her panic much but the relaxed timbre of his voice was beginning to help. “I know you’re not used to seeing people change like this. I know you feel like you need to stop it. But you can’t, and you’re not supposed to. We grow old, Sunshine. That’s what people do.”

“But, Eugene, it’s isn’t fair. I did it so many times before and now… I’ve seen it in my parents too. If anyone deserves to be young-“

“Life isn’t about being young. Come here.” Holding her by the hand, Eugene climbed out of bed and pulled her toward the balcony doors. Warm, salty air greeted them as they padded across the stone in bare feet. Rapunzel tipped her head back to look at the stars as he led her. “I think about getting older, sometimes.” She felt his hand find her waist and they twirled together a few times. The tears were drying on her face, leaving her cheeks feeling dry and hot. 

“I know, Eugene. I’ve seen you checking for wrinkles…”

“Admiring my classic jawline, you mean. I’m being serious, though. You know what I think about it?”

“What?”

“Well,” his voice softened and he kissed her on the forehead. The touch sent a warmth fluttering through Rapunzel, finally calming the ache in her heart. “Mostly, I think about this. You and me.”

“Us?”

“That’s right. I think about all the nights we’ve danced. All the mornings we’ve slept in. And all the days that we still have together before us.” Rapunzel’s hair caught in the wind and she pushed it away from her face with a small smile. 

“You’re a charmer, Eugene Fitzherbert.”

“It helps that you have a soft spot for me.” He laughed and threw his arms around her, spinning her until she was laughing and squirming. She hadn’t wanted him to know she was worried, because she didn’t want  _ him _ worrying as well. He was so wonderfully distracting. There was no one better at making Rapunzel feel at peace again than Eugene. 


End file.
